A nice morning spent drawing a mandala and adding colour to it. Well, part of it! The full design fits an A4 page with margins.

Mandalas are always so soothing to draw. In this case, I knew I wanted to start with a sunflower motif. And it just grew from there!

There’s a late summer / early autumn kind of feel to the colours I’ve used. I’m eager for the colour of the world to start to change and for nature to be at her most glorious! I know I have a little time to wait, but it’s getting closer. The quality of the light is changing as the seasons change. There’s a feeling of liminality about the world – it’s neither one season nor the other. It’s a threshold of the year, a point of change.

I feel excited as I think about autumn’s incipient arrival. I’m reminded of Bilbo and Frodo in Lord of the Rings who love walking in autumn. The warm enough days to wander, though at the moment it is just way too hot in the valleys of South Wales. Then there are the cool, refreshing nights where sleep is so easy compared to the heat of summer.

There’s a feeling of magic in the air. I feel it, and contentment and wonder follow.

It is these small moments of wonder that raise one’s spirits constantly. They’re there if we just take the time to pay attention to them. Then, for a while at least, we can put aside our worries and troubles and enjoy something full of beauty and awe.

That can be hard to remember when I’m having one of my wobbly days. I’m trusting the autumn will bring a sense of wanderlust to me. The wandering may not be far in distance, but in observation and enjoyment of the natural world, the wandering will be great, bringing inspiration and joy, wonderment and magic of its own. Memories to treasure in words and images.